Discerning human intent based on user-generated metadata

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for discerning human intent based on user-generated metadata are provided. Communications from a plurality of social networks are evaluated to determine whether they are associated with contexts indicative of user intent. When a social network communication is determined to be associated with such a context, a tag may be generated associating the social network communication with the indicated human intent. In addition, information regarding the social network communication may be exported to an application responsible for responsive action.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation and claims the prioritybenefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/889,267 filed Sep. 23,2010, which claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisional application61/369,699 filed Jul. 31, 2010, the disclosures of which areincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to data analysis. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to discerning human intentbased on analysis of user-generated metadata.

2. Description of the Related Art

More than a half billion users generate large amounts of data each dayon social media networks such as Twitter®, Facebook®, MySpace®, andFoursquare®. Users from around the globe post photos, videos, text(e.g., status updates and blogs), and other information at exponentiallyincreasing rates. Online social networks have become communication hubswhere users exchange information regarding their daily activities,political views, cravings, product complaints, family issues, andgeneral interests and musings.

This user-generated metadata can be harvested and analyzed to detectareas where business can improve the services and products they offer.There presently exists monitoring technology that allows organizationsto gather large amounts of metadata from third party services such asmicro-blogging, photo sharing, blogging, and other social networkingsites. With the aforementioned growth of such social networking sites,however, the sheer amount of meta-data being generated now makes it nextto impossible for a human operator to manually review and exportaggregated data in a time-efficient manner.

The detection and handling of sales leads, support requests, and productfeedback is currently a manual process in which raw data generated fromsocial media networks is individually analyzed, tagged, and exported toa customer relationship management (CRM) or support system by humanoperators. This process is extremely time-consuming and expensive due tothe tremendous amount of information generated each day by social medianetworks, as well as the amount of human labor required to analyze andprocess such information. The ability to accurately identify and processthis information by manual means alone is nearing a point ofimpossibility.

There is a need in the art for a system that can be completelyautomated, intelligent, and aware of different inter-departmentalsystems within the enterprise where data can be exported for furtherprocessing.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENTLY CLAIMED INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems fordiscerning human intent based on user-generated metadata. Communicationsfrom a plurality of social networks are evaluated to determine whetherthey are associated with contexts indicative of user intent. Forexample, when a social network communication is determined to include akeyword associated with such a context, a tag may be generatedassociating the social network communication with the indicated humanintent. In addition, information regarding the social networkcommunication may be exported to an application responsible forresponsive action.

Some embodiments include methods for discerning human intent based onuser-generated metadata. Such methods may include maintaining in memoryinformation regarding certain contexts indicative of human intent,accessing a plurality of social networks that publish a plurality ofsocial network communications, determining that the social networkcommunications is associated with the one or more contexts, identifyingthe human intent, and generating a tag associating the social networkcommunication with the identified human intent.

Additional embodiments include systems for discerning human intent basedon user-generated metadata. Such systems may include a memory forstoring information regarding one or more contexts indicative of humanintent, a network interface for accessing a plurality of social networksthat publish a plurality of social network communications, and aprocessor for executing instructions for determining that one or moresocial network communications is associated with the one or morecontexts indicative of human intent, identifying the human intent, andgenerating a tag regarding the social network communication and theidentified human intent.

In further embodiments of the present invention, computer-readablestorage media is provided. Embodied on such computer-readable storagemedia may be a program that is executable by a processor to perform amethod for discerning human intent based on user-generated metadata.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a network digital environment in which a system fordiscerning human intent based on user-generated metadata may beimplemented.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method for discerninghuman intent based on user-generated metadata.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Methods and systems for discerning human intent based on user-generatedmetadata are provided. Businesses are generally interested in gatheringuseful information about their customers. Such customers may publish agreat deal of information on various social networks on the Internet.Much of the published information may not be relevant to the business.As such, there is a need to efficiently evaluate information forrelevance to a particular concern.

Various embodiments of the present invention allow for communicationspublished in a plurality of social networks to be evaluated for thepresence of designated contexts indicative of certain user intent. Uponfinding a keyword associated with such a context, for example, a tag maybe generated associating the social network communication with theindicated human intent. In addition, information regarding the socialnetwork communication may be exported to an application responsible forresponsive action (e.g., CRM, sales lead tracking, service recoverysystems). Such a process allows for complete automation (albeitamendable to manual customization/intervention) in processing largequantities of information, as well as evolving intelligence andawareness of different inter-departmental applications and systems towhich data can be exported for further processing or responsive action.

FIG. 1 illustrates a network digital environment 100 in which a systemfor discerning human intent based on user-generated metadata may beimplemented. Communicating via communication network 110, users 120publish communications in various forms to social networks 130A-130D.The published communications are accessed and evaluated by metadataprocessing servers 140, which may then export information to variousapplications 150A-150C.

Communication network 110 may be inclusive of any local, proprietarynetwork (e.g., an intranet), as well as any larger wide-area network.The communications network 110 may include a local area network (LAN),for example, which may be communicatively coupled to a wide area network(WAN) such as the Internet. The Internet is a broad network ofinterconnected computers and servers allowing for the transmission andexchange of Internet Protocol (IP) data between users connected througha network service provider. Examples of network service providers arethe public switched telephone network, a cable service provider, aprovider of digital subscriber line (DSL) services, or a satelliteservice provider. Communications network 110 allows for communicationbetween the various components of digital environment 100.

Users 120 may communicate through communication network 110 using anynumber of different electronic client or end-user devices such as ageneral-purpose computer, a mobile device such as a cellular phone,smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), as well as a netbook(i.e., a miniature laptop computing device). Such users 120 may includeany individual or group of individuals who voluntarily providesinformation to various forums.

Such forums may include various social networks (e.g., social networks130A-130D). Social networks generally provide tools that allow users 120to create, manage, and maintain collections of relationships with otherusers 120 in a virtual environment. Social networks further allow users120 to encounter, interact with, and connect with new acquaintances andjoin virtual communities in a particular social network. To support suchfunctions, social networks allow for exchange of various forms ofpublished communications among users 120. Such communications mayinclude textual information (e.g., status updates, hyperlinks,bookmarks, blogs, microblogs, forum posts, comments), photos, and video.Each communication may either explicitly or implicitly provide data thatmay be used to discern user intent.

A user on an online micro-blogging service may explicitly post that heis in the market for a new phone. Alternatively, a user may imply thesame by posting that the phone she currently has does not operate in themanner desired. Similarly, such a user may also post a photo of a phonethat she wants and/or provide a link to a vendor website where such aphone may be purchased. Specifically, a photo of a new phone may beassociated with a name or tag indicating that the subject matter is aphone and/or the type of phone. In addition, the photo may be tagged bythe user as part of a “wishlist.” The phone may also be identified assuch in accompanying text or comments responsive to the photo.

Each of these communications includes or refers to information thatindicates that the user has a need or desire for a new phone. In someinstances, the user has further expressed a desire for a particularphone. In another instance, the user has provided feedback about aparticular phone. Such metadata may be extracted or extrapolated fromthe communication and/or surrounding communications.

Depending on the business, a dealer or manufacturer of phones may beinterested in such a user as a potential customer, either to replace thephone with a working model or a competitor model. Alternatively, themanufacturer of the poorly reviewed phone may wish to address thedissatisfied customer complaint or provide technical support. In yetanother circumstance, the manufacturer may use the information todetermine whether there is a flaw in design, manufacture, or otheraspect of the phone.

Metadata processing servers 140 can access communications that arepublished within any of the social networks 130A-130D (e.g., bydownloading a feed, such as a firehouse feed or garden hose feed) andevaluate such communications for indications of human intent that arerelevant to a particular party (e.g., phone dealer). Metadata processingservers 140 may include any computing device as is known in the art,including standard computing components such as network and mediainterfaces, non-transitory computer-readable storage (memory), andprocessors for executing instructions or accessing information that maybe stored in memory. The functionalities of multiple servers may beintegrated into a single server. Any of the aforementioned servers (oran integrated server) may take on certain client-side, cache, or proxyserver characteristics. These characteristics may depend on theparticular network placement of the server or certain configurations ofthe server.

Referring to the above example, a particular business (e.g., phonedealer) may be interested in obtaining sales lead information regardingpotential customers. A phone dealer may wish to send identified leadsinformation regarding sales or new phone models in the hopes ofgenerating a sale. For example, the phone dealer may designate certainkeywords that are of interest (e.g., “phone,” “telephone,” “cell phone,”“iPhone”). For the particular business, metadata processing servers 140may therefore access one or more designated social networks and searchcommunications within such social networks for the designated keywordsassociated with a context indicative of an intent to buy.

Just because a user mentions a keyword does not mean that the user is inthe market for a phone. For example, the user may simply be noting thatshe called a friend “on the phone,” “forgot [her] phone today,” islistening to a song titled “Telephone,” or utilizing a keyword in someother context that is not indicative of an intent to buy or amenabilityto receiving sales-related information. It is therefore not enough tosearch social network communications for certain keywords; the keywords'appearance in a particular context is what indicates a certain humanintent. It is the particular human intent (e.g., desire for new phone,complaint about current phone) with respect to the keyword that isrelevant to the phone dealer. Such intent may be discerned, for example,by identifying certain contexts in which the keywords appear.

The metadata processing servers 140 makes use of machine learning,artificial intelligence (AI), natural language process (NLP), Bayesianfilters and classifiers, and advanced information processing systems toidentify human intent from the context of one or more comments, posts,mentions, or metadata. For example, metadata processing servers 140 mayhave identified certain contexts as being indicative of desire oropenness to buy. Such contexts may include additional keywords ormetadata (e.g., “want,” “want a new,” “wish,” “wishlist,” “hate my”) insurrounding or responsive communications. Communications that may havebeen published in the same timeframe, for example, may shed light onwhat a neighboring communication means.

For example, if the blog post was a complaint of product X, it could bea sales lead for the competitor of product X, it could also serve as asupport request for the company that owns product X, or it could also betreated as a product enhancement request or a flaw with product X. Usingother monitoring solutions on the market, it would take enormous amountof time for an operator to manually evaluate and forward thisinformation for response from the appropriate entity. Metadataprocessing servers 140 may be able, however, to identify fromsurrounding communications whether the product complaint conveyscustomer dissatisfaction with the product itself or with accessories oraccompanying services provided by other vendors/service providers.

Data may be stored locally in a database associated with metadataprocessing servers 140. Alternatively or in addition, data can beexported to a variety of applications 150A-150C for further processingor response. An enterprise may implement many types of applications150A-150C to handle various action items (e.g., support requests orsales leads). By automatically identifying human intent in aggregatedpublic metadata, organizations can increase revenue and customersatisfaction dramatically. Applications 150A-150C that may have use forsuch intent data may include CRM systems for managing contacts and salesleads, support systems for tracking support requests and support-relatedissues, bug reporting systems for managing and tracking bugs, HR systemsfor managing employees and job applicants, ad serving systems formanaging advertising, content management systems, product or projectmanagement systems, and notification systems.

Applications 150A-150C may be a system associated with one or morepartners. A partner may be any entity with a business interest inreceiving information regarding the keyword and the identified humanintent with which the keyword is associated. For example, a particularmobile phone provided by a manufacturer may be referenced in a blogposted by a user in one of the social networks 130. As such, a partnermay wish to track various types of information regarding its product forsales, quality control, and service recovery purposes, for example.

Such information may be processed and included in compilations sent orexported to any applications 150A-150C associated with the partner. Suchapplications 150A-150C may include CRM systems 150A (e.g., Salesforce®),bug tracking systems application 150B (e.g., Bugzilla®), or projectmanagement systems 150C (e.g., Rally®), which may reside within theenterprise or exist as an online service. Other possible applications150 that may receive such information include databases/data warehousingsystems, reporting/analytics systems, business intelligence systems,support management systems, human resources systems, and project/productmanagement systems.

Metadata processing servers 140 may export identified data as a file(e.g., Microsoft Word®, Excel®, PDF, XML, JSON, SMS, email) to any ofthe applications 150A-150C automatically, periodically, and/or uponrequest. The particular parameters for aggregating, organizing, andformatting such exported data may be specified by the specific partnerrequesting such information.

In addition, the particular application to which certain information maybe sent depends on the particular intent. For example, communicationsregarding intent to buy are relevant to CRM systems 150A. As such,information regarding such communications may be sent to a partner's CRMsystem 150A with instructions for responsive action (e.g., following upon sales leads). Where a human intent may be associated with multipleaction items (e.g., a customer complaint may indicate both intent toreplace and a design flaw), information may be sent to both a CRM system150A, as well as a bug tracking system 150B and project managementsystem 150C.

John Doe may post a message, for example, on his Twitter® feed that “MyLaptop just broke.” Metadata processing servers 140 may flag the post,optionally review previous posts for additional context, (e.g., “DoNameBrand laptops normally smoke when you boot up?”), and aggregatessuch metadata from John and processes it as a sales lead or productcomplaint. Such information may be exported out automatically to a CRMsystem 150A, which may consider John a new prospective customer in themarket for a new laptop so that a corporate representative can reach outto John for laptop deals or service offers.

A few days following the original tweet, however, John Doe may post amessage on his Twitter® feed, “I love my new MacBook Pro.” Metadataprocessing servers 140 monitor and identify that John has already boughta new laptop, indicating that contacting John now with laptop deals orservices offers would be counterproductive. As such, John is no longer asales candidate. Metadata processing servers 140 may flag this updatedinformation and communicate the same to the CRM system 150A, thus savingresources as the sales tame no longer attempts to reach out to John.

In the context of a support issue, John Doe may post a blog stating that“Something is wrong with my Nikon. I can't take a picture!” Metadataprocessing servers 140 aggregates this information and identifies thistweet as a sales lead for Nikon or its competitors. Alternatively or inaddition, metadata processing servers 140 may also identify the tweet asa support request to Nikon. Information regarding the tweet (e.g., useraccount/contact information) may be directly exported to a third partysupport ticketing system. If, a few days later, John posts another blogstating that “Duh, did not know that the USB cable was faulty, thecamera actually works great!,” this indication that the user is nothaving any issues with the camera is sent to the ticketing system toupdate the support ticket automatically.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method 200 fordiscerning human intent based on user-generated metadata. In the method,contexts indicative of a desired human intent are stored in memory.Social network communications may be accessed and determined to beassociated with one of the contexts. Keywords, for example, may beidentified as being associated with a context indicative of a desiredhuman intent. A tag may be generated associated the identified humanintent with the communication. In some embodiments, a responsive actionitem is determined based on the particular human intent identified.Information regarding the communication may be exported to a recipientdesignated as being responsible for the responsive action.

In step 210, various contexts indicative of a human intent of interestare stored in memory. Such contexts and/or intent(s) may be designatedby a partner. For example, a particular camera manufacturer may beinterested in intent to buy in association with instances of “camera,”“digital camera,” and “photography” in social network communications.The camera manufacturer may also be interested in such words inassociation with complaints or concerns from its recent customers.

In step 220, various social network communications are accessed. Suchaccess may be obtained, for example, via a data feed associated with thesocial network. The particular social networks may also be designated bythe partner with varying degrees of specificity. For example, the cameramanufacturer may specify that it wishes to monitor communications postedto Twitter®. Alternatively, the camera manufacturer may only wish tomonitor communications posted by members of a particular photographygroup on Facebook®. Depending on the particular social networks (andsub-networks) designated by the partner, various types of informationpublished in such social networks and sub-networks may also be accessedfor evaluation. A fan page on Facebook®, for example, may providethematic or otherwise useful indicia for interpreting communicationsposted within. A communication simply stating “I want!” may notnecessarily provide any useful information in and of itself, but if thecommunication is posted on a fan page devoted to the latest iPhone®model, metadata processing system 140 can discern that the intentexpressed in the communication is related to that phone model. Prior toany further evaluations, the communications may be filtered to removespam and duplications.

In step 230, the contexts designated in step 210 may be found to bepresent in the communications accessed in step 220. For example, thenumber of communications accessed in step 220 may be filtered a firsttime based on presence of keywords associated with the designatedcontexts, leaving only those communications including the keywords forfurther evaluation. In some cases, metadata associated with acommunication may be extracted or extrapolated. Such metadata may alsobe searched and evaluated for relation to any of the designatedcontexts. In a search for online mentions of “laptops,” for example,metadata processing servers 140 may automatically aggregate millions ofmentions of laptops from all over the web, including tweets on Twitter®,Facebook® updates, MySpace® updates, blogs, comments, etc.

A set of proprietary algorithm(s) may then start filtering theinformation and identifying which pieces of aggregated metadata exhibithuman intent in step 240. A communication having a keyword may befurther evaluated for a context indicative of a desired intent. The setof communications remaining after step 230 may be further filtered basedon the context of additional keywords. Metadata processing system 140may have previously identified, for example, that a particular intent isindicated when one or more of the keywords appear in certain contexts.Defined and refined through various intelligent learning processes,contexts indicating intent to buy, for example, may include requests forrecommendations, complaints about old camera models, additions towishlists, etc. Such contexts may be identified in a particularcommunication and/or in surrounding communications, either by the useror by individuals who know the user.

In step 250, a tag is generated for a communication associated with thecontext indicative of a desired intent. Such a tag may be generated aspart of a notification to a third-party application (e.g., 150A-150C)and may be used to aggregate communications (e.g., communicationsindicating intent to buy vs. communications indicating complaints aboutbugs), before or after export. The tag may further indicate theparticular user account associated with the communication and other userinformation relevant to the identified intent. For example, the useraccount may be evaluated for additional contexts and other keywords ofrelevance to the intent. The results of such evaluation may also beassociated with the tag.

A tag may also indicate that the particular social network communicationis associated with additional data that may be useful to the cameramanufacturer from the foregoing example. The social networkcommunication may include a hyperlink, an identifier as to particularmanufacturer, make/model, color, etc. For example, the social networkcommunication may state that “I cannot wait to buy this cool new camerathat I read about here: http://www.coolcamera.com/model1.” The hyperlinkmay link to a page with additional data (e.g., FTP, SFTP, HTTP, HTTPS).The information regarding the linked site may also be tracked andevaluated in terms of influencing individuals, driving internetcommunications, and generating internet traffic.

In step 260, an action item may be determined in response toidentification of the desired human intent. In some instances, aparticular tag may be associated with a particular action item. Forexample, a communication tagged regarding an intent to buy may beassociated with action items for following up with the user regardingsales, rebates, dealer locations/websites, etc.

In step 270, an appropriate recipient may be identified. For example, anentity responsible for the action item selected in step 260 may bedetermined. For example, classification algorithms might determine thata mention for a laptop might need to be exported to a CRM system 150A.Alternatively, the system might update exported information if newinformation is discovered that might change human intent of theoriginally exported metadata. If someone has published that “My laptopis too old, I need to get a new one,” metadata processing servers 140may identify such communication as a sales lead for laptop manufactures(e.g., Dell, Sony, Acer, Apple), which may then be sent this exportedinformation into their respective CRM system 150A.

In another example, if someone posted that “My Dell Laptop is about tocatch on fire, it's heating up,” such a communication would indicatethat the customer needs support. Metadata processing servers 140 mayautomatically determine that the communication is a support request andexport information to a support system for further review. A supportrepresentative may then reach out to this user and suggest ways toremedy the problem. Optionally, further processing can be done to sendidentified metadata to support systems based on a model number or otherdistinguishable characteristics. In some instances, furtherclassification may be performed to identify which third-party enterpriseor cloud system the data should be exported. The particular partner maychoose various formats in which information may be exported. The datamay be exported manually, automatically, periodically, in batches basedon a set number of leads per day, or in real-time.

The information being exported may include not only informationregarding the particular communication, but also user accountinformation, user profile information (e.g., user ID, user name, useralias, user demographic information, user activity history), and relatedcommunications by the user or the social network of the user. Inaddition, various metrics or analytical information may also be provided(e.g., user social graph regarding friends and contacts of the user).

In some instances, the partner is charged for receiving suchinformation. The payment model may be based on payment for each saleslead or each support request exported. Alternatively, the partner may becharged for each communication processed or on a periodic basis (e.g., aset monthly fee) Billing and payment may be processed through methodspresently known in the art.

The present invention may be implemented in an application that may beoperable using a variety of end user devices. The present methodologiesdescribed herein are fully intended to be operable on a variety ofdevices. Computer-readable storage media refer to any medium or mediathat participate in providing instructions to a central processing unit(CPU) for execution. Such media can take many forms, including, but notlimited to, non-volatile and volatile media such as optical or magneticdisks and dynamic memory, respectively. Common forms ofcomputer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexibledisk, a hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROMdisk, digital video disk (DVD), any other optical medium, RAM, PROM,EPROM, a FLASHEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge.

Various forms of transmission media may be involved in carrying one ormore sequences of one or more instructions to a CPU for execution. A buscarries the data to system RAM, from which a CPU retrieves and executesthe instructions. The instructions received by system RAM can optionallybe stored on a fixed disk either before or after execution by a CPU.Various forms of storage may likewise be implemented as well as thenecessary network interfaces and network topologies to implement thesame.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. The descriptions are not intended to limit the scope of theinvention to the particular forms set forth herein. To the contrary, thepresent descriptions are intended to cover such alternatives,modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims and otherwiseappreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art. Thus, the breadth andscope of a preferred embodiment should not be limited by any of theabove-described exemplary embodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for discerning human intent based onmetadata, the method comprising: receiving information over acommunication network indicative of an interest in a topic and a humanintent related to the topic; accessing a plurality of sources of digitaldata over the communication network, the plurality of sources publishingdigital data regarding a plurality of different topics and indicative ofa plurality of different human intents; and executing instructionsstored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor:automatically filters the digital data based on language associated withthe topic of interest, automatically refines the filter results based onidentifying one or more contexts indicative of the human intent ofinterest, and automatically generates a tag associating the filtered andrefined results with one or more action items.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising storing information in memory regarding a pluralityof topics, each topic associated with one or more keywords.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising storing information in memoryregarding a plurality of human intents, each human intent associatedwith one or more indicative contexts.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising sending the tagged results to one or more designatedrecipients for performance of the action items.
 5. The method of claim1, further comprising identifying a user associated with each of thetagged results.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising receivingsubsequent digital data indicating that the user is no longer associatedwith the human intent of interest with respect to the topic, andupdating the tag.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein a new action itemassociated with the updated tag cancels a previous action itemassociated with the user.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the contextsinclude metadata associated with the language.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein the contexts include metadata in communications surrounding orresponsive to the language.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein thecontexts include metadata generated in a same timeframe as the language.11. An apparatus for discerning human intent based on metadata, themethod comprising: a communication interface for communicating over acommunication network to: receive information indicative of an interestin a topic and a human intent related to the topic, and access aplurality of sources of digital data, the plurality of sourcespublishing digital data regarding a plurality of different topics andindicative of a plurality of different human intents; and a processorfor executing instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of theinstructions by the processor: automatically filters the digital databased on language associated with the topic of interest, automaticallyrefines the filter results based on identifying one or more contextsindicative of the human intent of interest, and automatically generatesa tag associating the filtered and refined results with one or moreaction items.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a memoryfor storing information in memory regarding a plurality of topics, eachtopic associated with one or more keywords.
 13. The apparatus of claim11, further comprising a memory for storing information in memoryregarding a plurality of human intents, each human intent associatedwith one or more indicative contexts.
 14. The apparatus of claim 11,wherein the communications interface sends the tagged results to one ormore designated recipients for performance of the action items.
 15. Theapparatus of claim 11, wherein further execution of instructions by theprocessor identifies a user associated with each of the tagged results.16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the communications interfacereceives subsequent digital data indicating that the user is no longerassociated with the human intent of interest with respect to the topic,and updating the tag.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein a newaction item associated with the updated tag cancels a previous actionitem associated with the user.
 18. The apparatus of claim 11, whereinthe contexts include metadata associated with the language.
 19. Theapparatus of claim 18, wherein the contexts include metadata incommunications surrounding or responsive to the language.
 20. Theapparatus of claim 18, wherein the contexts include metadata generatedin a same timeframe as the language.
 21. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon a programexecutable by a processor to perform a method for discerning humanintent based on metadata, the method comprising: receiving informationover a communication network indicative of an interest in a topic and ahuman intent related to the topic; accessing a plurality of sources ofdigital data over the communication network, the plurality of sourcespublishing digital data regarding a plurality of different topics andindicative of a plurality of different human intents; and executinginstructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions bya processor: automatically filters the digital data based on languageassociated with the topic of interest, automatically refines the filterresults based on identifying one or more contexts indicative of thehuman intent of interest, and automatically generates a tag associatingthe filtered and refined results with one or more action items.